Introduction

Slow down, the first question you should be asking yourself is "what telescope do I need? You will probably find the best answer is none. A few pointers you may want to consider first include:

Only once you have answered these questions can you then seriously ask yourself which telescope to look for.

If you do not know much about the night sky & are a beginner to astronomy, put off buying a telescope for about 6-12 months, there is much to learn about the night sky before you will need one.

This may seem boring, but in the long run you will be stumped if you don't know your way around them. See them as the A-Z of the sky telling where everything is & where everything is suppose to be. Even if you live in the city, most popular constellations are easy to find due to their size. In-fact they are easier to see from the city because all the other hundreds of stars don't confuse you.

Right ascension & declination are the longitude and latitude of the sky. O degrees R.A = North, 12 degrees R.A = South. O degrees Declination = Celestial equator, 90 degrees Declination = Celestial Pole. Every object in the night sky has it's own set of co-ordinates so it is well worth your while to understand what you can. Look up Altitude & Azimuth too.

As stupid as this may seem, learn what a galaxy & globular cluster etc look like, there's no point looking for something if you haven't got a clue what it's suppose to look like. Try to learn about the size of these objects too. Through a telescope or binoculars even galaxies millions of light years away may be much bigger than you expect.

By now about six months should have passed and you should be fairly comfortable in knowing what's up there. It is now that a good pair of binoculars should be purchased (if not already). Don't get anything too powerful as these will yield a smaller Field Of View and finding objects will be harder, and very wobbly. A set of 8x50's are fine.

Give yourself a good few months using these as much as possible to get the most out of them. Look at the Moon, The planets & open star clusters. You will realise that there is a lot out there to see.

You are now ready to purchase you first telescope (if your patience has been kept under control). Unless you are desperate DON'T go out and buy a 12" LX200 or something so big you won't be able to fit in your living room. You will want something light weight & portable with a large aperture. A perfect all-rounder is the Dobsonian Reflector or Newtonian reflector.

The telescope on the Left is the Dobsonian reflector while the Newtonian Reflector is on the right. Both Telescopes give you a lot of aperture for your money, although the Dobsonian's tend to be a little cheaper. Both telescopes have long focal lengths & are therefore very good for Lunar, Planetary & double star observing. Due to the large apertures available they can both be used for deep sky observing as well.

BAD POINTS	GOOD POINTS
Because of it's alt-az configuration, they cannot track stars & must follow objects by manually nudging the scope.	Very cheap for size of aperture. A 16" scope can cost the same as a 10" SCT or 4" APO.
Most Dobs do not have motors and they are not easy to fit manually, although digital setting circles are.	They are very portable due to their weight. Very good first scope for both Adults & children.

BAD POINTS	GOOD POINTS
They are not as portable as Dobs, although they are still lighter than most telescopes.	Due to Equatorial configuration both digital setting circles & motors can be added to track the stars.
With an exposed Primary mirror, they are prone to dust & dirt and any other elements. Therefore they require more maintenance (same for dobs).	With a good German Equatorial mount these telscopes can track objects much better than most telescopes.

The next best scopes to go for are a bit more expensive but are worth the money. These are the Schmidt Cassegrain & Maksutov Cassegrain.

The Schmidt Cassegrain (left) & Maksutov Cassegrain (right) have more or less the same optical design. Both have a large corrector plate and mirror for collecting as much light as possible. The Maksutov lens is meniscus shaped as to give better images toward the edge of field.

GOOD POINTS	BAD POINTS
Large aperture with good coatings means a large collecting surface with minimal reflection.	Due to the quality of the lenses & mirrors you can expect to pay 2 or even 3 times that what you pay for a Dob or Newtonian.
95% of Cassegrains come with an Equatorial wedges which makes the Cassegrain the most popular telescope for astrophotography.	Large corrector plate gives rise to large dewing problems. Because of sealed OTA, these telescopes can take up to 45-60 minutes to cool down to observing temperature.
Both makes are easily portable even up to 12-14". Both Meade & Celestron make small Scopes from 3.5-5" upward, meaning that these scopes can be placed in suitcases.	Both have medium sized secondary mirrors which can block upto 40% of the total incoming light. The Maksutov Cassegrains tend to have a larger flared secondary mirror.
SCT Cassegrains tend to be designed at around F/10 with focal lengths of 2000-4500mm which makes them very good for all round observing. The Mak's tend to have a longer focal length and higher focal ratio's of F/15+. This makes them good for planetary & double star observations.	Because of long focal lengths & the added fact that the light must pass between two mirrors means that the light is more prone to degrade before it reaches your eye. It has to pass through a lot of air inside the scope which makes it more turbulent

Refractors are what I would call the classic telescope design. They are superior to most other telescopes for a few reasons. Firstly they have no mirrors, so the light only has to pass through the scope once, meaning that the light is much less prone to any form of degradation from thermal currents or secondary obstruction. They have long focal lengths meaning they are perfect for planetary, double star, & lunar observations.

GOOD POINTS	BAD POINTS
Although long focal lengths make them good for certain observations, they also tend to have a reasonable filed of view meaning that Large Nebulae & galaxies are also visible.	Because they use no mirrors, refractors can exceed 5-6' in length....(yes, over 6 feet)
Refractors are popular as beginner scopes because of their cheap costs. Refractors also have their expensive counterparts called Apochromatic refractors which can cost up to £1,000 per inch of aperture, you are paying for pure quality, & that's just what you get.	Apochromatic refractors can cost serious money, but they are worth it. Although smaller refractors are cheap you usually get very poor quality & only 2.5" of aperture.

When purchasing a telescope you should buy the one that suits you best. Although it's not recommended, there is nothing to stop you going out and buying the biggest telescope you can find. If by now you still do not know which telescope to buy, go to a star party or join an astronomical society & talk to people who own telescopes similar to those you are interested in.

The best thing you can do with your new telescope is to set it up indoors & figure out how to use it. Obviously you won't be able to polar align it (if t has an equatorial set-up), but still take a good look through the manual before you touch it. Chances are it will take you at least 45 minutes to set it up & a few hours to completely understand what everything does. Take your time & practice dismantling it and erecting it so you know exactly what to do. If you do not have an observatory you may have to set it up on many occasions. DO NOT under any conditions touch the lens.

All telescope both cheap and expensive are there to do one thing, collect as much light as possible and magnify it. All optics on telescopes are polished to perfection before being shipped, but over a period of time the lenses will gather dirt & dust.